Describing Arron Afflalo’s importance to the Nuggets

Posted By
Benjamin Hochman
On
December 20, 2011 @ 12:16 pm
In
General Nuggets |
No Comments

There are good moods and there is what George Karl was in this morning.

Arron Afflalo is one of Karl’s favorite players and the shooting guard is coming back to the Nuggets. Karl was giddy after Denver’s shootaround (the Nuggets host the Suns in a preseason game tonight at 7).

Some people wonder why a guy who averaged 12.6 points per game got a contract good for five years and up to $43 million. The Nuggets coach explained the importance of Afflalo:

“Twenty games into the season, I don’t know what my guys scoring averages are – I just know who’s helping me win games. I coach the game very seldom on stats. And Arron Afflalo, I never thought Arron would become this valuable to this basketball team, but even two years ago when he first got here, I’d look and say, ‘I played him 38 minutes?’ I couldn’t take him off the court because he just help the things together so well. Last year, he became even better of that. And then he became kind of the leader of the team after the trade (of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups).”

Asked how Afflalo can help the Nuggets this season, point guard Ty Lawson said: “From knocking down open shots to defending. And he said he’s expanded his game, so I’m excited to see that – probably ball-handling and getting to the basket, as well as pull-up jumpers. And hopefully his bounce.”